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Handball is a team sport where two teams of seven players pass a ball with their hands. The aim of the game is to throw it into the goal of the other team and score more goals than the opposition.

A standard handball match consists two 30-minute halves with the team that scores more goals wins.

Handball is mostly played in Europe with European countries winning all but one medal in the men's World Handball Championships since 1938. Only two non-European countries have won the women’s World Handball Championships: South Korea and Brazil. Handball enjoys popularity in East Asia, North Africa and South America.

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International Handball Competitions

• IHF World Men's Handball Championship
• IHF World Women's Handball Championship 
• Men’s Pan American Championship 
• Women’s Pan American Championship
• Men’s North America and Caribbean Handball Championship
• Women’s North America and Caribbean Handball Championship

European National Handball Competitions

• Austria: Handball Liga Austria, Bundesliga Männer (men), Women Handball Austria, Bundesliga Frauen (women), Österreichischer Cup (men, women)
• Belgium: Bene League Handball (shared with Netherlands)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Handball Championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Croatia: Croatian First League of Handball
• Czech Republic: Zubr extraliga
• Denmark: Damehåndboldligaen, Jack & Jones Ligaen
• England: England Handball Association
• France: Ligue Nationale de Handball
• Germany: Handball-Bundesliga
• Greece: Greek Men's handball championship
• Hungary: Nemzeti Bajnokság I (men), Nemzeti Bajnokság I (women)
• Iceland: Olís deildin
• Israel: Ligat Winner
• Macedonia: Macedonian Handball Super League
• Montenegro: First League (men), First League (women), Second League (men), Second League (women)
• Netherlands: Bene League Handball (shared with Belgium), Eredivisie (women)
• Norway: Eliteserien (men's handball), Eliteserien (women's handball)
• Poland: Polish Superliga (men's handball), Ekstraklasa (women's handball)
• Portugal: Andebol 1 (men), 1ª Divisão Feminino (women)
• Romania: Liga Națională (men), Liga Naţională (women)
• Scotland: Scottish Handball League
• Serbia: Serbian First League of Handball
• Slovakia: Slovenská hadzanárska extraliga
• Slovenia: Slovenian First League of Handball, Handball Cup of Slovenia
• Spain: Liga ASOBAL, División de Plata de Balonmano
• Sweden: Handbollsligan (men)/Svensk handbollselit (women)

Worldwide National Handball Competitions

• Angola: Angola Men's Handball League (men), Angola Women's Handball League (women)
• Argentina Confederación Argentina de Handball
• Australia: Australian Handball Club Championship, Handball League Australia, Australian National Handball Championship (States)
• Egypt: Egyptian Handball League
• Japan Japan Handball League
• Tahiti (French Polynesia): Tahitian Handball League
• Turkey: Turkish Handball Super League
• United States: USA Team Handball Nationals, USA Team Handball College Nationals

Handball Organisations

The International Handball Federation (IHF) administers international handball including handball as an Olympic sport at the Summer Olympics. The IHF comprises five continental federations: Asian Handball Federation, African Handball Confederation, Pan-American Team Handball Federation, European Handball Federation and Oceania Handball Federation. 

These five handball federations organise continental championships held every other second year. Handball is played during the Pan American Games, All-Africa Games and Asian Games. Handball is also played at the Mediterranean Games. 

In addition to international handball competitions handball federations organise international tournaments between clubs.

Handball Rules 

Modern handball is played on a court of 40 by 20 metres wide with a goal in the middle of each end. The goals are surrounded by a 6-metre zone where only the defending goalkeeper is allowed.

Goals must be scored by throwing the ball from outside the 6-metre zone or in the process of jumping into it. Handball is mostly played indoors, with outdoor alternatives including field handball and beach handball.

Body contact is permitted as defenders attempt to stop attackers approaching the goal. 

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Handball History

Games involving throwing a ball between players with the aim of throwing it into a net has existed for thousands of years. Ancient Roman women played a version of handball called expulsim ludere and there is evidence of handball games in medieval France, Greenland and during the Middle Ages.

By the 19th century versions of handball included håndbold in Denmark, házená in the Czech Republic, handbol in Ukraine and torball in Germany.

Handball as we know it today began to be organised at the end of the 19th century in northern Europe, mainly in Denmark, Germany and Scandinavian countries including Norway and Sweden. The first written handball rules were published in 1906 by the Danish gym teacher Holger Nielsen.

The modern set of handball rules was published in 1917 by Germans Max Heiser, Karl Schelenz, and Erich Konigh.. The first international handball games were played between Germany and Belgium by men in 1925 and between Germany and Austria by women in 1930. 

Men's field handball was first played at the Summer Olympics in Berlin in 1936 which saw indoor handball thrive in the following decades, especially in Scandinavia. The International Handball Federation organised the men's handball world championship in 1938 that continued every three or four until 1995.

Since 1995 the men’s handball world championship has been held every two years with the women's handball world championship held since 1957. In 2016 the International Handball Federation had 197 member federations with approximately 1,000,000 teams and more than 20 million players worldwide.